UEC not part of Pakatan’s ‘100 days’ pledges, says manifesto chairman

Any decision on recognising UEC must go through in-depth study, says Rais Hussin.

Rais Hussin tells critics and supporters of UEC to study Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto.

PETALING JAYA: A PPBM leader said Pakatan Harapan (PH) was not obliged to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) within the coalition’s first 100 days in power.

Rais Hussin, who chaired PH’s manifesto committee for the 14th general election, said the coalition’s promise to recognise the examination certificate for private Chinese schools was part of 60 pledges by the coalition, to be implemented in the next five years.

“UEC recognition is the second phase of the PH manifesto,” Rais told FMT, in the wake of criticism against the government over its plans to recognise UEC, which would allow the certificate to be used for entry in local public universities.

Rais said any decision on UEC could only be reached after an in-depth study, as it involved the education sector.

“It’s not as easy as frying an egg. We can’t just implement it. It has to be done in stages,” he said.

The PPBM chief strategist said he agreed with former minister Rais Yatim, who said the PH government should not rush into recognising UEC.

Rais said Education Minister Maszlee Malik had also made it clear that any decision on UEC must be holistic so that it would not undermine the national language.

He said students applying for entry into local universities were still required to pass the Bahasa Malaysia paper at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia level.

Since 1975, UEC has been the standardised test for Chinese independent high school students, and is organised by the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia, or popularly known as Dong Zong.

It is based on a curriculum developed by Dong Zong, in which the medium is not Malay as is the case with national schools.

Rais also hit out at critics of UEC who accuse the government of undermining the national language, and urged them to study the PH manifesto on the matter. -FMT